Co-author of The Expansion Sale, Three Value Conversations, Conversations That Win, Husband of one wife, Dad of four daughters. Strategy for @corpv
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Articles by Tim Riesterer
Feedback Is the New Forecast
Sales forecasts are useful for tracking whether you’re going to hit your number. But they don’t tell you why you missed it – or what your team should do differently in the next set of deals. For the people responsible for performance – sales leaders – that’s the frustrating part. You can’t coach a forecast. You can only coach behavior. But only if you can see what’s really happening in the conversations between your buyers and sellers.
What AI Can’t Replace
Several years back, researchers analyzed 103 million hands of online poker and, to their surprise, discovered that the best hand wins only 12% of the time. Turns out, the best player wins 88% of the time, no matter what cards they’re dealt. Sales organizations have been in a frenzy to adopt AI. But just like those poker players, your success doesn’t depend on having the best technology.
How to Apologize to a Customer When Something Goes Wrong
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How to Get Into Your Buyer’s Mind to Influence Purchase Decisions
A lot of people think that the impulse to buy something, to press that checkout button, is instinctive. It’s a quick, almost subconscious response when you see something you want. But there’s a lot more going on in people’s minds than just “see-want-buy.” There’s psychology behind every buying decision, and it isn’t always easy to identify, even for the buyer making the purchase.
Outside Sales Are History, and COVID-19 Didn’t Kill Them
Even before the pandemic, inside sales accounted for about 70% of all B2B selling activity. Of course, selling became nearly 100% digital for the past two years. The question on everyone’s mind is how much face-to-face selling will come back as business moves on. The answer is probably not much. In fact, Gartner reports that 80% of B2B sales cycles are expected to permanently move to digital channels within the next few years.
The Best Way to Announce Price Increases
As the world emerges into a new era of consumerism, prices for all goods and services have leaped thanks to a 40-year record inflation increase. In 2022, alone, the consumer price index rose 9.1 percent. In our studies, we've found that about 80 percent of business revenue comes from existing customers. Because of today's record-high inflation, businesses can't just increase prices for new patrons. They first need to figure out how to have pricing conversations with existing clientele.
4 Forever Changes Transforming B2B Revenue Activities
Sales training and enablement leaders, it’s time to level up. Buyers are searching for more information on their own. That means they are engaging with your content further down the funnel. As a result, your content can’t be just a companion to a sales-led customer conversation — it needs to be able to stand on its own, address your buyers’ big questions, showcase your unique value and motivate action. When buyers eventually do talk to your reps, those conversations will most often happen remotely.
The ABM value pyramid: Chart the KPI stepping-stones to ROI
ABM has long sales cycles of 12-18 months, so it’s right to expect the same timeframe for your ROI. However, our global survey of over 300 B2B marketers found that those who have already delivered a return on investment (that’s 41% of you, despite most being only in the early pilot phase) did so within an average of just 9.8 months. However, that is a global average. The UK takes 13.3 months, over double their US counterparts.
Video: The 'body part' attributes needed to be a great ABMer
Home / blog / Video: The ‘body part’ attributes needed to be a great ABMer Video: The ‘body part’ attributes needed to be a great ABMer 01 October 2020 Fujitsu’s ABM Lead, Andrea Clatworthy explains the ‘body part’ attributes needed to be a great ABMer VIDEO Great news! Andrea will be speaking at the B2B Marketing virtual ABM Conference 2020. It takes place 4-5 November so grab your ticket today!
Proving the Power of Situational Enablement
Situational Enablement has tremendous benefits for your organization. Imagine being able to ready your sales force to respond to urgent threats or opportunities in weeks, instead of waiting months. But realizing the power of Situational Sales Enablement requires a new approach to training and coaching your salespeople on new skills. And it hinges on what we call Inline Training—a flexible, on-demand training model that works in line with your sales team’s day-to-day workflow.
Deficit Learning and the Rise of the Just-in-Time Situational Salesperson
People are more willing to learn and will learn best when they’re in a deficit—a moment of need. This kind of learning is what we call, “Deficit Learning.” For example, do you remember the last time you had to change a flat tire? Chances are, it’s been a while. And when it happens, you’ll probably need to refresh your knowledge by dusting off the old owner’s manual or looking it up online. And that’s okay. Why? Because you learn best when you’re in a deficit.
3 Examples of Situational Enablement in Action
This article describes three examples of Situational Enablement in action. What is Situational Enablement? Situational Enablement programs are initiatives that you can roll out quickly when you need to address acute, must-win business challenges and market opportunities. At the core of Situational Enablement is the integration of tailored messaging, content assets, and relevant skills training to respond quickly and win at that moment. Consider the following three examples. 1.
The 3 Waves of Sales Enablement
In Alvin Toffler’s book, “The Third Wave,” he talks about society’s transition from the Industrial Age (Second Wave) to the Information Age (Third Wave). Toffler considered the Agricultural Age as the First Wave transition from our hunter-gatherer origins. You can think of training and enablement programs as similar waves along a continuum. As you move from left to right across the x-axis, your enablement programs become more flexible and more situational.
How to Make Virtual Sales Meetings More Engaging and Memorable
Sales reps who were selling in person just a few months ago are now steeped in a very different (virtual) reality. But how do salespeople feel about virtual sales meetings, versus in-person presentations? Not good. According to our recent industry survey of over 550 B2B sales reps, nearly 70 percent of salespeople don’t believe that remote selling is as effective as in-person. One of biggest reasons, according to respondents, is that participants tend to multi-task.
The Good Room or the Bad Room?
Turns out, training effectiveness scores are impacted by “room quality,” even in a virtual environment. “Training leaders were refusing to teach in the basement classrooms because their scores were lower versus when they would teach in the top floor classrooms with a view of the city and windows all around. Same content, same instructor, consistently different scores between the two venues.” This is what we heard from a training leader at a Fortune 100 software company a couple of years back.
Why Isn’t Everyone Whiteboarding?
A new survey shows that 77 percent of salespeople rely on PowerPoint for their in-person presentations, while only 6 percent use whiteboarding. The whiteboard vs PowerPoint disparity jumps even higher in remote selling situations, where slides are used more than 83 percent of the time while using a digital whiteboard, or any kind of annotation, drops to below 4 percent. Five years ago, we did a breakthrough study with Dr. Zakary Tormala of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
In the Subscription Economy, “Expansion Messaging” is the Key to Driving Customer Renewal and Growth
Over the last decade, most companies have moved away from one-time product and service sales to subscription-based business models. In fact, analysts estimate that 70-80 percent of the average company’s revenue now comes from existing customers in the form of renewals and upsells. Customer success has become a premier growth engine with unique demands and pressures.
Everything You Need to Know About Whiteboarding in Sales
Whiteboarding your sales presentations is a powerful alternative to PowerPoint—and research shows it’s more effective, too. You’ve likely heard the phrase, “Death by PowerPoint.” It’s become a common way to describe the mind-numbing experience of sitting through a feature-length slide presentation filled with bullet points and clip art.
Why Your Sales Kickoff Needs a Shake-Up
The goal of every great sales kickoff event is to get your team fired up, energized, and ready to win. Yet, year after year, most sales kickoffs get dragged down by too many informational, product-based breakouts. And all these product presentations often come at the expense of more customer-centric activities—including practice and coaching—that actually drive more energy, better performance, and lasting behavior change. It’s time to give your sales kickoff a much-needed shake-up.
You vs. We: Which Is the Best Way to Phrase a Campaign?
It’s a quandary many marketers face: What’s the best pronoun to use when referencing a target audience? Should you be talking to them using you-phrasing? Or are we better off using we-phrasing? It turns out one little word can have a big impact on campaign success. The concept of you-phrasing as a replacement for we-phrasing, while slightly obscure, has been around for decades in the academic realms of social psychology and behavioral economics.
How Marketers Can Nudge Prospects To Buy Now
The majority of companies aren’t satisfied with their ability to tell an executive-level story or craft a business case that creates urgency and moves prospects to act, according to our recent industry survey of 312 marketing and sales leaders from 275 companies.
Marketers And Salespeople Share A Messaging Blind Spot
Whenever marketers and salespeople are aligned on something—anything!—our natural tendency is to hail it as a victory, a rare moment of concord between two not-always-friendly factions. But not so fast. Findings from a new Corporate Visions industry survey paint a picture of marketing and sales “alignment” that provides more questions than answers. Why? Because sometimes alignment actually means “consensus,” and consensus can have a downside.
When Marketing Stories And Sales Skills Converge
All kinds of tools and apps promise to help your salespeople “in the moment” across the different types of selling situations they face. However, the marketing messaging, content assets, and skills training needed to take advantage of these situational sales enablement technologies have not been ready, leading to many technology failures due to lack of adoption. That is changing—and fast.
Are You Matching Your Message To The Moment?
You might have heard some variation of the idea that salespeople need to be fluent across the many different moments they face in their sales conversations. The same sentiment gets applied to marketers much less—but it shouldn’t be. Because that type of fluency is just as critical for those who develop the stories as it is for those who tell them in the field. Marketers must be great at creating stories that respond to the unique pressures that arise in different buying situations.
When Not To Challenge Your Customer
The call for B2B marketers and salespeople to always be challenging and disrupting the customer is a great piece of advice when you’re trying to acquire new business. But it’s actually very bad advice when you’re trying to keep your customers and convince them to pay more. In fact, disrupting your customer during a renewal or price increase discussion is exactly the wrong approach—one that could drive a great customer right into the arms of your competition.
Whiteboard Beats PowerPoint As Persuasive Storytelling Tool
People have been picking on PowerPoint for a long time. But the remedy proposed is ... better PowerPoint. Emerging “visual storytellers” speak of using large metaphorical imagery or borrowed interest photography and flooding slides with just a few key words. So many opinions sound convincing, but is there really anything to support the contentions of these design gurus?
How To Communicate A Price Increase To Your Customers
Last month, I wrote about the crisis of confidence and concerns over effectiveness that marketers and salespeople feel when it comes to communicating price increases. This month, I want to share the results of our new research project to determine the best messaging framework for improving this difficult task. Don’t Challenge Your Customer The first important finding completely flies in the face of all the hype surrounding the idea of provoking and challenging customers.
Why Aren’t More Marketers Involved In Pricing Strategy?
“I need you to pay more.” When you’re trying to communicate that message to customers, you’ll encounter plenty of potential for things to veer in the wrong direction—and fast. As tricky and challenging as this conversation can be, its strategic importance is undeniable for companies with aggressive growth goals. And it’s a message responsibility that marketing pros inevitably at some point have to handle with effectiveness and precision.
Why It’s Time To Focus On Your Retention Message
A sales leader at one of the biggest global tech companies recently told me the software renewal rate in his Asian market was only 10%. Unfortunately for him, it was the market he managed. “I have to close the back door,” he said.
What’s In A Winning ‘Why Stay’ Story?
A provocative message is marketing gold when you’re trying to acquire new customers with a great “why change” story. Research proves it. But it’s a very different story when you apply that same approach to renewal conversations or your “why stay” message. A Corporate Visions study I wrote about recently revealed that the provocative messaging approaches so in vogue today aren’t effective in a renewal context.
To Convince Customers To Disrupt Their Status Quo, You Must Change, Too
Most marketers believe that buyers are at least 57% of the way through the buying journey by the time a sales rep takes the lead. A recent study by my company found that nearly 80% of marketing and sales leaders believe the stat is true. But just because you think it’s true or believe it’s true doesn’t make it true, right? Two counter findings call the stat into question.
Naughty And Nice: How To Keep Your Customer Conversations On Santa’s Good Side
Good intentions are a nice start for staying off Santa’s naughty list this holiday season, but they’re no guarantee that you’ll end up with something better than a lump of coal in your stocking. After all—as the man in the North Pole knows—good intentions have to be validated by good actions, kind deeds. There’s a parallel in business: Your best intentions won’t bear fruit if they’re not followed up by the right instincts, the right execution in the field.
Your Content Problems Are Actually Messaging Problems
If you believe buyers are 57% or more of the way through the buying cycle, you’re not alone. Seventy-eight percent of marketing and sales leaders agree with the stat, according to a new survey from Corporate Visions. You might not find that so surprising. But what might surprise you are the responses to a question posed to those who agree with the premise of that stat about what kind of impact it’s had on their messaging and content.
Are Your Insights Edgy Enough?
Insights have exploded for a reason: They can disrupt your prospects’ world and give them the urgency and direction to do something different now. The problem is, many of the insights circulating in the market today aren’t sufficiently different from the ones your competitors are putting out there. Sometimes they’re exactly the same. Or they’re simply providing information that’s true but ultimately useless in terms of getting your buyers to see their world differently and take action.
How To Convince Customers To Stay
Provocative messaging and insights-based approaches are all the rage as companies seek to disrupt the status quo, create the urgency to change, and get companies to choose you. Yet often people who work for companies that have significant market share ask me, “What happens when you are the status quo?” When you’re the outsider looking to unseat an incumbent competitor, a disruptive approach is essential for overcoming the status quo bias.
It Takes More Than A Technology Stack To Drive Demand
It’s crazy. At last count there were something like 1,800 tech companies in the so-called “mar-tech stack”—the multilayered collection of automation, tools, and systems designed to drive modern marketing. Given the heightened focus on the stack and the continued explosion of technology players, it’s tempting to imagine that vetting the vast array of first-class solutions and investing in the best option for each step of the buyer’s journey will solve your most pressing marketing challenges.
Meet Your Real Marketing Enemy: Buyer Inaction
Think about the last time you got billed for a cable or satellite service. Notice how steep the bill was? It’s frustrating because you weren’t always getting hosed. You remember several years back when you moved into your new house, opened an account, and took advantage of a sweet promotional deal for new subscribers. What happened to that? Meanwhile, you’re well aware of other providers offering lower rates or fantastic introductory offers.
Think Executives Are Rational Decision Makers? Think Again
When you create a message for VPs or higher personas, you may be tempted to assume that their decisions are strictly rational and logical and that it’s all about the math. Why? Because they tell you that, and they believe it themselves. Well, they are lying to you. Not on purpose, but lying nevertheless, according to a recent experiment we conducted with Dr. Zakary Tormala, a social psychologist with expertise in messaging and persuasion.
Is Your Content Worthy Of Being Published?
Remember when producing “good” content was easy? The formula was tried and true: Harvest the most interesting factoids and data points from the latest third-party research, repackage them in your marketing and sales content, and hope against the odds that your competitors aren’t using the exact same information (and if they are, that none of your prospects and customers will notice). That was the model. It was simple, it was passable--but it may not work anymore.
Three Counterintuitive Ideas for Making Your Growth Strategies Work
Companies looking for more profitable growth often turn to the following three common strategies. But each has a major flaw that causes you to continue leaking precious margin. Do any of these sound familiar? 1. Pricing and discount strategies: You've developed new pricing policies, you've rearranged the compensation plan to encourage more profitable deals, and you've even started aggressively tracking and reporting discounts, but you are still discounting too much. 2.
Do Sales People Really Know What Training They Need Most?
Many companies rely on asking salespeople what training they think they most need and want when planning their skills training program. Is it possible, however, that salespeople may not actually know what training is best for them? And, asking this question may actually lead your training plans astray? I’ve talked before about the concept of “declared preferences” (what they say or feel) versus “revealed” preferences (what they actually do).
Does Your Messaging Have An Expiration Date?
Anyone who owns a refrigerator or cares about his own well-being is familiar with the concept of shelf life or the amount of time an item of food can stay in your pantry or fridge before spoiling. Ignore these important expiration dates, and you could be in for a queasy couple of days—or worse. Clearly, when you don’t replenish your foodstuffs, you suffer. Likewise, when you don’t refresh your messages to the market, your impact may suffer.
Business Bestsellers for February 2016
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The Business Book Best Seller List for February 2016 “I think of the folks at 800-CEO-READ as the arbiters of all that is good and useful in business books.” – Erika Andersen, author of Leading So People Will Follow, Being Strategic, Growing Great Employees, and more. Each month we compile a list of our top selling books. These books are featured on our site, within our Keen Thinker Newsletter, and syndicated through various publications.
By Thomas Graham, Daymond John, Daniel Paisner, Brian Grazer, Charles Fishman, Jason Selk, Matthew Rudy, Peter C. Browning, Robert M Gates, William Sparks, Adam Grant Verified, Lisa Nichols, Harry Kraemer, Karie Willyerd, Charles Green, Barbara Mistick, D Michael Abrashoff, Robert M. Galford, Alec Ross, Erik Peterson, Tim Riesterer, Tim Sanders, Robin Koval, Linda Kaplan Thaler, Allan Friedman, John Mattone, Mike Robbins, Tom Bartow, Janet Switzer, Grace Killelea, David H Maister, Ian Ziskin, Conrad Smith, Cheryl Geoffrion, Luc De Brabandere, Alan Iny, P W Singer, Nick Vaidya, Jane Mc Gonigal
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800ceoread.com
Who Doesn’t Love A Good Underdog Story?
I’m sure you’ve heard that we are in a new era of buying and selling--how it’s all about the buyer’s journey (not the sales process) and how the buyer has all the power today. The question for you is this: Do you know how to message and sell from your "low-power" position in a way that is most effective? What The History Of Wars Can Teach Marketers And Sellers In his book "David and Goliath," Malcolm Gladwell discusses an obscure study by Ivan Arreguín-Toft, a political scientist.
Do Your Insights Incite Or Excite?
When it comes to messaging and selling with insights, you should ask yourself a simple question as a litmus test: Do your insights excite prospects for a passing moment or do they incite them to take buying action? Sure, the two words may share the same root, but those little prefixes give them very different meanings in an insights messaging context.
Where Sales Reps Are Struggling--And What Marketing Can Do About It
If your car was operating at only 70% of its capacity, you’d want to fix that pretty quick, right? And if your home Wi-Fi connection was only 70% as fast as it should be, you’d probably look to replace it with a new service, wouldn’t you? So what would you do if the sellers in your organization were performing at only 70% of their potential? If your company is anything like mine, you’d do everything in your power to shore that up immediately.
Saying Versus Doing: Diagnosing A Disconnect
With the presidential primary season heating up, maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that sales organizations--like so many politicians on the stump--are saying one thing and doing another. A recent market survey done by my company reveals a striking disconnect between what companies believe drives the greatest value and where they’re actually investing most of their time and money.
Do Questions Still Have A Role In Insights Selling?
You’ve heard all the popular selling maxims: Diagnose before you prescribe. Ask questions and listen; after all, you have two ears and one mouth. Use them in proportion. With the rise of insights-based selling approaches, such concepts have come under added scrutiny, leaving many marketers and sales professionals wondering where open-ended diagnostic questions fit into the selling equation. It’s unlikely that great diagnostic questions are going to fall by the wayside any time soon.
Defeating the status quo with visual storytelling
While more market research shows that your biggest enemy is your buyer’s status quo—not your other competitors—the most pressing question for salespeople is obvious: What can you do to make change seem more attractive? That question matters because salespeople can no longer afford to think of their customer conversations strictly in selling terms. That’s because, in reality, what you’re really conducting is a change management project.
The Most Common Insights That B2B Marketers Use and Their Drawbacks
There's no shortage of companies that now view insights as a pivotal component of provocative selling. A recent survey by my company, Corporate Visions, found that 81% of companies believe they use an insights-based approach as part of their selling strategy. That figure says a lot about the popularity of insights. What it doesn't tell us is what companies mean when they say they use an "insights-based" approach.
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